File:A second series of the Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians, including their religion, agriculture, &c. Derived from a comparison of the paintings, sculptures, and monuments still existing, (14782662195).jpg

Identifier: secondseriesofma01wilk (find matches)
Title: A second series of the Manners and customs of the ancient Egyptians, including their religion, agriculture, &c. Derived from a comparison of the paintings, sculptures, and monuments still existing, with the accounts of ancient authors
Year: 1841 (1840s)
Authors: Wilkinson, John Gardner, Sir, 1797-1875
Subjects: Agriculture
Publisher: London, John Murray
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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vels were low, and the waterhad continued long upon the land, they often dis-pensed with the plough t, and probably, like theirsuccessors, broke up the ground with hoes, orsimply dragged the moist mud with bushes t afterthe seed had been thrown npon the surface ; andthen merely drove a number of cattle, asses, pigs,sheep, or goats into the field to tread in the grain.§ In no country, says Herodotus;;, * do theygather their seed with so little labour. They arenot obliged to trace deep furrows with the plough, * Vol. III. p. G.i. -j- To this, perhaps, the 10th verse of Deut. xi. refers, where mentionis made of tlie simple process of sowing the seed in Egypt as a gardenof herbs. J A sort of harrow seems to have been used as early as the time ofJob (ch. xxxix. 10.). § Diodor. i. 36. Plin. xviii. 18. /«/r woodcut, No. li^ I. II Herodot. ii. 14. n 4. 40 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XT. to break the clods, nor to partition out their fieldsinto numerous forms, as other people do ; but when
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CHAP. XI. PLOUGHING. 41 the river of itself overflows the land, and the waterretires again, they sow their fields, driving the pigsover them to tread in the seed; and this being done,every one patiently awaits the harvest. On other occasions they used the plough, butwere contented, as Diodorus* and Columella tobserve, with * tracing slight furrows with lightploughs on the surface of the land ; and othersfollowed the plough with wooden hoes t to breakthe clods of the rich and tenacious soil. The modern Egyptians sometimes substitute forthe hoe a machine §, called khonfud, ** hedgehog,which consists of a cylinder studded with projectingiron pins, to break the clods after tlie land has beenploughed; but this is only used when great care isrequired in the tillage of the land : and they fre-quently dispense with the hoe; contenting them-selves, also, with the same slight furrows as theirpredecessors, which do not exceed the depth of afew inches, measuring from the lowest part to thesummit

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